Owen is a Welsh surname that is somewhat popular in the English-speaking world. Like most Welsh surnames, it was originally a first name. Wales (called Cymru in Welsh) was a patronymic culture like Iceland until around the 1400s, when the surnames were frozen or chosen. Instead of there being one big Owen family, it was more the case that there were several men named Owen whose sons had the word “Owen,” “Bowen” (short for “ab Owen”), or “Owens” (same as the English Owen’s in the possessive) after their name to indicate the father.

In other words, there were no “clans” in Cymru like there were in Scotland and like there essentially are in the United States today.

Nevertheless, around the turn of the millennium, Sheila Daniel of the Cambrian Woolen Mill in Powys designed about forty “name” tartans associated with some of the most common last names in Wales, including Owen, Williams, Jones, Evans, Griffith, and so forth. Owen was in this group, registered in the Scottish Register of Tartans as “Owen of Wales” around 2001. They are now exclusively owned and produced from the Wales Tartan Centres in Swansea (Abertawe), who makes some amazing tartan products.

So what is special about these Welsh tartans, of which Owen is one?